Translational cancer epidemiology: a study of physical activity and cancer prevention

Abstract

The objectives of this post-doctoral project are (1) to estimate the effect of different types, intensities and periods of life of physical activity on the risk of cancer; (2) to evaluate the costs of the Brazilian public health system with the treatment of cancers that could potentially be saved by increasing physical activity. For the first objective of the project, we will use data from the Harvard cohorts (Nurses' Health Study, Nurses' Health Study II and Health Professionals Follow-up Study) that included approximately 300,000 participants. The follow-up has been conducted through questionnaires on nutrition, lifestyle, physical activity, and different health outcomes. Diagnosis of cancer (by anatomical location, stage and histological type) are obtained via medical and pathological records. We will analyze the associations of different types (aerobic versus muscular strength), intensities (sedentary, light, moderate and vigorous) and life periods (12-13, 14-17, 17-22, 23-29, 30-34, e35 years of age) of physical activity with cancer risk through Cox regression models. For the second objective, we will use information from (i) 57,962 adults who answered the physical activity questionnaire in the Brazilian National Health Survey; (ii) estimates of RR of cancer from a meta-analysis; (iii) hospitalization costs, chemotherapy and radiotherapy procedures from the Hospital Information System of the Unified Health System and the APAC System. We will estimate costs with cancer treatment that could potentially be saved by increasing physical activity using the population attributable fraction method.